Memories
by magic.ruby17
Summary: Assigned to the task of uncovering the mystery behind the magic of vanishing cabinets, partnered alongside her longtime nemesis Draco Malfoy, Hermione discovers sorcery, love, buried secrets and a life she doesn't remember. Can the magic of love long forgotten bring back what was once lost? story based on past life.
1. Chapter 1

A/n: pls read and let me know if you find the idea interesting, it's something I have been thinking about since a long time and decided to finally put down into words.

Hermione loved mysteries, there was nothing better in life than solving a mind numbing, headache inducing, sleep depriving mystery. After the whole war fiasco there weren't many problems that were left to be solved and no deep secrets to be uncovered which had given Hermione a state of giddiness and bliss that lasted approximately for a month and now a year later she was bored out of her wits at the library that she worked in. Her life for the past seven years had been a constant maze and puzzle and so she desperately missed the thrill of unearthing magical crypts.

All the search for a perfect job had led her to the one which would suit her best, the job of an unspeakable. It was perfect. she could work on ancient magic and discover new things, the job of working in the department of mysteries was the biggest mystery in itself,she had jumped with joy when she received an acceptance letter as a trainee working under Madam Greenfin who was one of the people holding high positions in the department and the rumor was that she herself was nearly a hundred and fifty years old, her excitement knew no bounds, she was going to be an intern under a person who had survived the whole war and knew a lot more than they let on, from start to finish. After all working at the mysterious department for nearly hundred and twenty five years would have its perks.

Harry and Ron had been happy and relieved that she had finally found her calling and that she wouldn't rip their heads off out of boredom and lack of complication. They had smiled goofily at her victory dance and celebrated along with her, they were relieved that now that she had her own work to distract her, she wouldn't take it upon herself to solve their auror cases without actually being an auror, they had surprisingly found her underneath an invisibility cloak at a crime scene trying to find clues, being the good friends that they were they didn't chide her but put the blame on Kingsley stating that he had found her hair near the crime scene and asked her to refrain from contaminating the said scene again, to which she had confessed, and sadly in a small voice said that she was just trying to help, both the boys had sighed and let the matter go, they understood, she was someone who wouldn't ever sit idle.

The first day of her internship arrived bright and sunny and Hermione couldn't help but smile when she woke up, brushing her teeth and humming a happy tune she finished all her chores and dressed into a grey pencil skirt with a blue silk blouse and matching pair of pumps,tying her hair into a high pony she applied light makeup and pink lipstick, she felt great.

A tall dark man awaited her at the ministry when she arrived, he had buck teeth similar to the ones she had before they were fixed and she had an intense urge to correct his teeth as well, he look at her with adoration and informed her that he had been waiting for her since eight in the morning to which Hermione informed him that she was asked to arrive at ten, he beamed at her , "It was too exciting to just sit at home and so I decided I rather wait for you, you are my favourite chocolate frog card", he said, blushing slightly as red coloured his dark cheeks. Hermione smiled at him thinking he wasn't that bad looking after all , she could always transfigure his teeth and get rid of his spiky hair.

"I am Daniel humphrey by the way", he smiled and held his hand out.

She shook his hand and returned the smile.

They set off towards the department of mysteries and Daniel constantly chatted about how she was his inspiration and he hoped to work with her and maybe they would be placed on the same assignment. Hermione hoped for the same as he was a pleasant fellow except for his insistent chattering.

The department was dark and daunting as ever and Hermione felt a shiver passed through her when she entered the circular room, "we will be heading to the maze", Daniel stated, his voice had lost all its cheery tone and now he sounded very serious, the room had that effect on anyone, Hermione who had felt all sunshine and rainbows since morning felt thunder and dampness, the mysterious department of mystery had this typical theme, it was all too secretive, after all the various doors and chambers held secrets untold and magic long forgotten.

Daniel lead her on towards the room on the right, he opened the door and she saw a maze much similar to the one she had seen at Hogwarts during the triwizard, "Its the same", Daniel whispered to her,knowing she had recognised the likeness, "the triwizard organisers borrow this maze when they need it."

"Do we have to cross the maze every time we need to reach the main office", she asked curiously.

"well yes", he cleared his throat. "don't worry you'll learn the way eventually, theres a path only unspeakables know off, we take that path which never changes, anyone else who tries to reach the office gets lost", he said taking a turn and then another one again, it was all too difficult to remember but Hermione tried her best to.

The moment they stepped out of the maze her eyes came upon a typical office, one with proper desks and flyers lying around, a dart board on the wall, coffee machines and various other doors leading to offices belonging to high officials, a few people were working on their desks writing notes and the whole office had a nice air of calmness.

Daniel smiled widely showing off his perfect buck teeth which again made her a little nostalgic, she winced.

"Here we are", he said cheerfully, the office held normalcy and so Daniel had come back to his cheerful self.

"Madam Greenfin is waiting in her office,go on and meet her, she will give you your task for the day", he said pointing towards a corridor to the left, "all the best", he added.

Madam Greenfin was a tiny old lady with a button nose and sharp features, she sat on a magical wheelchair which kept hovering above ground, a classic hovering and advanced mind control charms she concluded looking at the muggle contraption that had been magically enhanced.

She had a very high pitched voice which didn't seem to belong to her, she would keep changing the tone of her voice as if she was narrating a horror story, the department had probably addled her brain a little and made her a little scary.

Her office was cluttered with papers and magical artifacts and Hermione couldn't see the wood of her desk due to the amount of papers the lady had deposited on it.

"Miss Hermione Granger, I knew I had to take you under my wing the moment I saw your application, girl she seems to have an attraction to destruction, left my precious brains in a puddle she and her dimwitted band of hooligans.", she seemed to have forgotten that she had been talking to Hermione Granger and not about Hermione Granger.

Hermione cleared her throat and extended her hand, " pleasure to meet you madam", she said politely though feeling heat rising on her cheeks due to embarrassment.

"Ahhh! dearie you are here", the old woman screeched,she seemed to have come back to her senses.

" We here at the ministry give our precious unspeakables assignments that they have to work on for indefinite periods of time", she yawned, "I am still working on the evolution of cornish pixies, merlin knows who accidentally bred them, irritating creatures, ate my office, the whole lot of them, lost all my research and had to begin again", she muttered, meanwhile Hermione just nodded, Madan Greenfin was one of those people who you wouldn't want to cross, she was fierce.

"you can start working on more projects when you cross the one month mark here, if you can survive the constant danger lurking in the department corridors." she whispered eerily.

Hermione imagined her telling her grandchildren horror stories and scaring them off.

Without giving Hermione a warning she zoomed past her head in full speed, she had to duck to save her head, the ceiling of her office was very high and the shelves seemed to be touching the sky, the old woman had disappeared off to one of those shelves and Hermione had lost sight of her.

After an hour of waiting Hermione was getting impatient, she wondered if she ought to go looking for the old woman, she would have probably dozed off on her zoom chair somewhere high up in the air, she was just about to accio a broom when she heard the distinct zoom of the wheelchair as it landed and twirled around her.

"oh my! oh my! I got lost, glad I found you, you must be the naughty little Granger girl", she sniffed.

"You had gone to bring me my assignment", Hermione tried to remind her.

"Ohh! of course, who wants to have a lunch break, not me, I was looking for papers, she acciod a file and handed it over to Hermione.

Hermione left the room in a huff, the old women had given her an adrenaline rush with all her antics, she had instructed Hermione to go through the file and find her partner and that he would tell her about the whole background of the project, according to Madam Greenfins description the lad was a handsome guy and she had been researching on youth potions so she could marry him someday, complaining that there was too much competition in the department when it came to handsome wizards, the old woman was surely crazy if not full of extra energy.

Hermione shuddered at the thought of her becoming someone like Madam Greenfin when she became old because of the crazy environment of the department.

She opened the file and her eyes went wide when she read the headline 'VANISHING CABINETS' and underneath it the name of the other intern who would be working along with her, Draco Abraxas Malfoy.

A/N: READ AND REVIEW...trust me its encouraging.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: chapter written in a drunken stupor….

Draco malfoy,former death eater, disliked individual number one,hated by many loved by only women, now lived the good life. He was an unspeakable which entailed not speaking much and doing his work in solitude, he loved being lonely and after all the attention that he seemed to have roped in during the whole war scene he preferred seclusion. He had a few faithful friend which actually involved only one friend and one very narcissistic girlfriend who claimed to love him more than her mirror reflection.

He had been arranging charts regarding his research on the board thinking about his oh so perfect life when he heard a timid knock on the door,a new intern was coming in today and he hoped it was them and not Madam Greenfin, he was so not in a mood to give her a goodbye kiss so early in the day.

He flicked his wand and cancelled the locking charms so that whoever was planning on disturbing him could let themselves in.

"ahemm hmmm", the interrupting individual cleared her throat, it was a her, and Draco who was still casting a pinning charm on the board hadn't bothered to look at her,he had a flair for dramatics and so he was waiting for the perfect moment when he would turn around according to his fancy.

"Mr. Malfoy", she interjected again, he finally decided to give in and turn around, he wished he hadn't, he blinked twice and sat down on his desk continuing his paperwork.

"Malfoy", she shrieked.

"This is really happening, she told me it was a pleasant surprise, this is a bad dream", he muttered pulling at his hair.

"Malfoy now that I am here, I expect you to behave like an mature individual and not whine like a sissy", she said in a sharp tone with her nose up in the air.

"Still all high and mighty are we mudblood?", he spat, her face turned pink with indignation but she didn't retaliate.

She didn't even bother to snap back at him and started her tirade about the research, Draco slumped back at his chair and waited for her to finish her speech

"….so i conclude its dark magic or blood magic plus you already mentioned it involved medieval sorcery dating back to the fifteenth century", she finished and let out a loud puff of air, she had spoken all in one breath.

"Miss know it all or is it Mrs?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"miss", she informed, how daft can he be, didn't he read the prophet any more.

"Have a look at the cabinets closely miss Granger before coming to silly conclusions", he said, walking towards her and looking down upon her, she sniffed at him with disdain.

"follow me", he ordered, he looked much different now, his face was once more healthy unlike the shrunken corpse he looked last year, his grace and poise was back, he wore a classy blue shirt,shiny leather shoes which could blind her if she looked at it in sunlight and grey formal pants which hugged his arse finely, she felt mortified at herself when she realised that she had been checking out ferret arse, god help her she needed to get rid of her virginity, her hormones were attracting her to animals from the weasel family she thought,now the joke was on her again, she wanted to bang her own head on the nearby wall.

He took her across the maze towards another room, she wondered why the doors didn't move around anymore but didn't ask him as she was sure he would insult her know it allness, she promised herself that the moment she reached home she'd floo Flourish and Blotts and find a book.

He took her to a door that led to a corridor and she couldn't make out the end of it,looked like it lasted forever ending into darkness, they walked for a few minutes silently, only her heels making clicking noises as she struggled to keep up with his fast pace, they had ventured into the dark corridor eventually reaching a smoky end, the wall looked like it was made out of dark fog and it had a shimmery sheen to it, "now this is blood magic", she heard him say as she felt him lift her arm and prick her with something sharp.

The moment a drop of blood left her body the whole corridor illuminated, no wonder the git could see everything, his strides had been too confident for someone walking in pitch black darkness.

"Being blood bound to this research you will be able to make it into the corridor from now on without getting lost, I have registered your magical signature with mine", he said.

"I remember you thought I had mud in my blood,didn't know mudbloods could carry magic", she said sarcastically,she couldn't resist making a jab at him.

"I have much better things to do than argue with you", he countered,he opened a black door which had appeared in place of the smoky door, the room inside was illuminated with a few candles floating around and it had dark green walls with intricate gold patterns which had an unnatural sheen to it. Inside the room there was nothing else except two large cabinets, both equally tall, the only difference was that one was dark mahogany while the other one was a lighter shade, which looked a little bleached with age.

He opened the cabinet door of the one with the darker shade and said softly as if talking to himself, "this was in Borgins", Hermione who had seen the cabinet open for the first time in her life asked him inquisitively, "didn't these cabinets get burned due to the fiendfyre?"

"no, the magic protecting them was stronger than anything we've ever seen and that is the reason we have them here Granger"' he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.

" how is that possible"' she asked him surprised, she had never seen anything like this before, fiendfyre was one of the most destructive and darkest of fires which had the power to destroy all sorts of magic and enchantments.

"Granger, tell me one thing the whole war taught us?, he asked her as if talking to a child.

"love is stronger than all magic", she stated matter of factly.

"ten points to gryffindor", he mocked.

"what do you mean", she asked, now getting seriously interested in his theory.

In order to give her a better explanation about the whole thing he opened the mahogany cabinet and showed her the inside of it, it looked like plain wood but if someone used a powerful torch or a strong lumos they could see a small carving at the top corner of the inner wall of the cabinet,it was written in beautiful calligraphic script,the words written made Hermione's heart clench for reasons unknown.

'_My love, my love will find you, if the portals close and the magic leaves,my heart will find you,when dreams are shattered and tears are spilled, my last breath will find you, if I die and you are lost,in my next life I will find you.'_

_-damian_

"what the hell is this Malfoy?" she asked a little breathless after reading the script.

"you tell me granger, wait till you see the next cabinet.", he smirked, this was something he knew more about, he wanted to rub it in her face.

Without bothering to wait for him to open the next one, she rushed towards the ashen cabinet and pulled it open, a candle floated nearby so that she could see what was written in there, what she saw inside shocked her, there was no calligraphic carvings or romantic thoughts in this one but it had something much terrible, the cabinet looked like it had played the role of a tomb for someone who had been buried alive,the doors and inner walls of the cabinet had scratch marks all over it, there was brown stains marking the scratch marks which she concluded was dried blood. Hermione bend down to look at the floor of the cabinet which was covered with dust, it had more scratch markings which looked a little different to the ones on top, they were smaller yet deeper as if scratched with help of something other than human nails.

Draco who had been standing behind her seemed genuinely surprised at her discovery, he had been on this research for the past week and hadn't yet looked too closely at the scratches,he was busy with the background and history of these cabinets, he had requested and pulled many strings and lost considerable gold to land up in this assignment and wanted to be sure not to be left behind in anything regarding it.

He cast a simple scourgify at the cabinet floor which earned him a smack on his arm from Hermione, "we could have found some Dna you idiot", she reprimanded.

"Granger", he took a pause and gave her his best glare, "it would have been too contaminated to be of use plus I already have samples of the dried blood", he snapped.

She turned pink in the cheeks from embarrassment, she had forgotten that not everyone was careless like Harry and Ron.

She looked back at the scratch marks which had faded with age but she could make out a few letters on it,she conjured a camera and clicked a few pictures of the markings.

She stood up straighter and a sudden thought struck her, "do you think Montague carved this when he was stuck here?"

"Do you think I haven't asked him that?", he asked, looking insulted. "He did nothing inside the cabinet, he was stuck somewhere in between both of them and tried apparating but he couldn't manage it,seemed like the magic of the cabinets kept changing frequencies, he managed to get back after a few hundred tries", he finished.

"Lets get back and get these photos developed", she said after a few minutes of silence in which they both seem to be lost in their thoughts.

"ok", he agreed.

They walked back to his office in complete silence and when they entered the space they noticed it had been expanded and a new desk had been added facing his in the opposite corner.

"Wonderful", he growled.

"Looks like we are sharing this office Malfoy", she smiled at him evilly, " princess may get my mudblood germs now", she said in a sweet voice. He scowled at her and went back to his desk and picked up a random flyer to read so as to get his mind off this new uncomfortable development.

"perfect", he grumbled.

"I'll be right back Draco once I finish developing these", she said sincerely giving him a genuinely kind smile which she usually reserved for house elves and old women.

Draco looked at her and blinked a few times, she knew he was shocked that she had used his first name but she didn't want to acknowledge that or make a big deal out of it, she wanted to bury the hatchet and move on, the assignment was too interesting to waste her time hating him, a peaceful environment was more productive for work.

She took off with a sway in her hips and a flick of her high pony leaving behind a dumbfounded Draco Malfoy staring at her back.

a/n: read and review…. let me know what you think, cookies and cream for everyone who does…!


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